TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) —It’s tax season, and that means some of you can expect a 1099 form to arrive in your mailbox.
Sandra Sanders, of Odessa, received three mysterious 1099s, totaling more than $1 million—all listing her home address as a heart clinic.
All three forms were addressed to Ocala Heart Clinic II LLC, but her address was there, and the tax identification number included the last four digits of her social security number.
The forms came from Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Florida, Health Options Inc. and Florida Blue Medicare, which happens to be Sanders’ insurance company, so she called them.
“She came back and said, ‘Look, I don’t know why this is going on but I can file it as grievance on your part that you’re concerned that your healthcare information may have been compromised.'” Sanders said.
Not happy with that answer, she called Better Call Behnken. Investigator Shannon Behnken called Florida Blue and was sent this statement:
“Turns out, this was a case of a notice that was mailed out in error. We’re looking into the root cause of how this mistake occurred and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused the recipient. there is no further action required on her behalf.”
“My concern is that Florida Blue doesn’t follow up with the IRS because these forms say this information has all been sent to the IRS, and if that’s true, they’re showing part my of tax number with a $1 million payment,” Sanders said.
A spokeswoman for Florida Blue explained that the 1099s are real and the address was the only error.
I was told Florida Blue will manually correct the forms and send them to the actual address of the heart clinic in Ocala. They also plan to correct the forms with the IRS so there’s nothing linking Sanders to these payments.
